Good post, interesting...... There will always be better formats (many prefer ogg over mp3....etc) but any standard is a move in the right direction. Can the standard be improved? Of course it can. But to truly mainstream (and IMHO move publishing into the 21st century) the masses must be able to buy any reader from any manufacturer, and load any book from any bookstore and read it. I realize that epub may not be the greatest for technical documents, or perhaps some other specialized material. But, there can be specialized devices to accommodate special needs. The most important thing is that an epub allows the hope that a simple format for the general publishing industry is soon to come.